Our Nation's Capital; well nearby

Like Cooma, we had stayed in Queanbeyan before, in the town's Riverside caravan park and like Coomas then we had experienced such heavy rain that the river flooded and we were evacuated from the caravan park up to the showgrounds. We didn't want a repeat of that and as the sun was blazing and it was around 32 degrees we were pretty sure it wouldn't happen.

We checked in for 4 nights and set up. We were staying here because it's the closest campground to Canberra. The Exhibition Park in Canberra EPIC is really the most central but it is closed at certain times of the year for big events, such as the Summernats. (Street Machine car festival). Right now it was closed from Dec 17th to Jan 12th. We were happy with Queanbeyan, it's certainly closer to shops and restaurants than EPIC would be.
Michael's niece, Clare, was happy to drive down from Canberra to pick us up and take us out and about so we were happy.

We had a day wandering around Queanbeyan shops and streets but memories of our previous visit returned that night when the heavens opened and the rain came down. The next morning was sunny and clear with the forecast promising that it would stay that way well into the new year.

Clare arrived just after lunch on Saturday and we went off to look around her suburb of Canberra. We went up Redhill and enjoyed a nice cake and cuppa with views over the parliament and city.

  We went to Kingston and walked along the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin. The foreshore is nicely developed and there are lots of cafes and bars as well as a lovely walk through the park.

We were just thinking of heading back when a little more of that rain, that has been following us for weeks, came down. It wasn't a heavy shower but it forced us into a bar for a drink whilst it lasted. Then we went to Chong Co Thai restaurant for dinner, another great Thai meal full of flavour and spice.
 After a quick cup of coffee at Clare's place she took us back to our little home.

The next day she picked us up and we went back up to Kingston and walked around the Bus Depot Markets. There were lots of wonderful stalls but we only bought some lovely fresh bread and some garlic and chilli macadamia nuts.

We had lunch here and then Clare drove us out into the countryside.

 Once again we went to the south of Canberra towards the Snowy Mountains, we went to Tidbinbilla. Home of The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, it opened in 1965 and was used for tracking the Apollo Lunar Module.

Today they manage and operate one of NASA's three tracking stations that provide continuous, two-way radio contact with spacecraft exploring our Solar System and beyond.

From their web page:- 

In 2015 the Canberra station celebrated 50 years of operation. In 1965 it helped to receive the first close-up pictures of the surface of Mars, taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft. Since then, it has been involved in hundreds of missions, including the Apollo missions to the Moon, the Skylab space station, and the early flights of the Space Shuttle. In August 2012 it carried the signals confirming the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars, and in 2015 it received some of the first images of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft.
The Complex is currently supporting missions, including:

• Mars missions, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers
• Messenger spacecraft currently orbiting Mercury
• New Horizons spacecraft travelling to Pluto and beyond, and
• Voyager 1 and 2, which have been in space for over 40 years.

Not all these missions are NASA's. From time to time the Complex also supports the missions of other space organisations.

                     It was a great day out, and the coffee was good too.

Then we slowly drove back to Queanbeyan where Clare joined us sitting in the shade outside our motorhome before we went into Queanbeyan town for a lovely curry at the Bombay Spice House. The restaurant had only 2 tables set  and the owner explained that from 7.30pm they would be closing for a private party, we would be finished eating by then so enjoyed some very nice curries, naan and lassi. (The party was for the owner's daughter, she would be 4yrs old).

Then it was time for hugs and goodbyes as Clare went back to Canberra and we got ready to move on to the towns and valleys to the north of Canberra.

The next morning we drove up to Goulburn, Australia's oldest inland town.
We planned on visiting the Rail Centre there but today is Monday, and they are open Tuesday to Sunday. We did a drive around tour of the city and then took the Hume Highway Westwards to the little town of Yass.

It's a nice little town and we planned on spending Christmas Day in their caravan park.
We drove straight to the park and checked in. The price was good and then the manager asked if I had a senior's card...yes...well,  I get $5 discount!

The sites were large and shady, we set up and relaxed. Later in the afternoon we noticed that the left rear tyre looked a little flat. Hmmmm will check the pressure before we leave. Later that night we noticed that the left rear tyre was as flat as a pancake!!! Here we go again! this is the 4th flat that we've had since we've had the vehicle and it's always the left rear.
There must be some percentage statistic for that.
But then again - aren't 77% of statistics are made up?!